Agenda item

Report ACH22-004

The Committee considered an overview of the Bromley Safeguarding Adults Board’s (BSAB) Annual Report 2020/21. Teresa Bell – Independent Chair of the Bromley Safeguarding Adult Board (“Independent Chair – BSAB”) and Bulent Djouma – Bromley Safeguarding Adult Board Manager (“BSAB Manager”) delivered a presentation on the work of the BSAB, which is attached at Appendix A.

The Independent Chair – BSAB advised Members that the Local Authority had a duty to establish a Safeguarding Adults Board under S43 of the Care Act 2014. An Independent Chair was appointed to provide an impartial and objective steer to fulfil its statutory obligations. The BSAB had three main functions which are to:

-  Develop a strategic plan which described the Board’s objectives and how members of the Board would achieve these;

-  Publish an annual report detailing how effective the Board’s work had been; and,

-  Undertake Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) and publish the findings and recommendations from these.

The BSAB included representatives from the statutory sector; health and blue lights services; the private health, care and housing sector; and the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector. The membership of the BSAB was broad and inclusive and meetings were very well attended. To ensure that there was the ability to make decisions in an effective and timely way, the BSAB had an Executive Committee which consisted of the core partners.

The Independent Chair – BSAB said that the purpose of the annual report was to provide a summary of the work carried out by its members throughout the year. The document was produced in consultation with all members, and provided an overview of the local safeguarding context, the Board’s core strategic priorities and how partners had supported in achieving these. The work of the individual subgroups was also summarised, providing transparency in the work that was achieved. It was highlighted that an easy read version of the annual report had been produced for the first time. Key highlights had included:

-  Focus on COVID-19 and areas of related work whilst ensuring business continuity with its strategic priorities;

-  Effective transition to virtual ways of working and its challenges;

-  Community engagement during the pandemic – via resources, targeted contact with most vulnerable (Trading Standards, Metropolitan Police Services); and,

-  BSAB website developed during the reporting year, therefore much emphasis was on this as a platform for key communications and source of Board information, access to various training, guidance and policies, etc.

The main sections of the report focussed on:

- Local context:

-  Demography of service users;

-  Number accessing services (23,399);

-  Number of calls made to Adult Early Intervention Service (14,000+);

-  Number of referrals made to Adult Social Services (6,276); and,

-  Number of adults accessing long-term support (2,803).

- Strategic priorities:

-  Domestic Abuse;

-  Financial Abuse;

-  Self-Neglect;

-  Modern Day Slavery;

-  Transitional Care of Children into Adulthood; and,

-  Vulnerable Adults in Specialist Care and Residential Homes.

- Work of Board partners:

-  Achievements throughout the year; and,

-  Priorities for the year ahead.

The Independent Chair – BSAB highlighted that the subgroups had been key in terms of the delivery of actions that were agreed at a strategic level. An example of this included ‘4. Safeguarding Adult Review Committee’ which oversaw and managed the reviews that were carried out when an incident resulted in a death or a near miss. During the year, learning from the first SAR had progressed to the development of a tri-borough Complex Case Pathway together with Lambeth and Southwark. A further example was ‘5. Self-Neglect and Hoarding Panel’ which highlighted awareness of a growing issue, both locally and nationally. A panel had been introduced, and met regularly, to minimise risk and share information about individuals who were self-neglecting to ensure they were monitored, and interventions put in place as required.

Priorities of the BSAB for the coming year would include:

-  Assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual agencies, workforce and service users;

-  Focus on further engaging with service users and the community;

-  Safeguarding Adults Partnership Audit Tool (SAPAT) challenge event;

-  Further develop resources to raise awareness of emerging matters; and,

-  Identify and share learning opportunities for all professionals/ practitioners.

In response to a question, the Independent Chair – BSAB advised that the Board had a strategic function, and it was essential for them to work with other partnerships – the role of the BSAB was at a strategic level, rather than an operational level. Domestic abuse was a concern, not only for the BSAB, but also the Bromley Safeguarding Children Partnership and the Safer Bromley Partnership. Joint working was undertaken, and they supported each other in their actions to respond to people experiencing domestic abuse.

The Member further highlighted that Universal Credit was paid by household, rather than separate accounts, and if anyone in receipt of this was suffering domestic abuse this created a huge barrier to them leaving that situation. The DWP had put a number of things in place to try to mitigate this risk, including having specialist officers in Jobcentre Plus premises. With regards to the points raised in terms of financial implications, the Independent Chair – BSAB considered that this could be flagged with their DWP representative to see if this was something that needed to be explored further by the BSAB. The BSAB Manager advised that from an operational perspective, working with their partners, the BSAB had developed a number of resources to tackle domestic abuse and the possible implications of financial abuse. At the start of the reporting period, awareness material had been distributed within the borough, and the availability of safe spaces had been promoted. Working with colleagues in Trading Standards they had also promoted newsletters and matters pertaining to financial scamming. There had been lots of crossover in terms of support, ensuring that there was a clear message about what was available. The Independent Chair – BSAB highlighted that domestic abuse was an area that was the subject of much discussion at the recent challenge event. It had been recognised that although there was some good work being undertaken, it was an area that they needed to keep a sharp focus on.

A Member noted the reference made to a SAR that had been completed, but was not included in the report, and asked for further information on its content an indication as to when it would be published. The Independent Chair – BSAB said that the report would be published in the coming year and would be summarised in the next annual report. This related to a historic safeguarding adult review, which was an organisational safeguarding concern, and could not yet be published for various reasons including parallel investigations being undertaken. However it was emphasised that actions from the report had been implemented and were being monitored closely by the BSAB.

A Member noted that priority 6 – vulnerable adults in specialist care and residential homes stated that ‘15% of safeguarding enquiries were for abuse in a care home setting’. It was questioned whether this was abuse from staff, or abuse between residents, and what type of abuse this referred to. The BSAB Manager noted that page 82 of the Annual Report (page 158 of the agenda pack) summarised the top-level data in terms of the location of abuse, but there was further data that was used to identify the type of abuse and where it took place. The Commissioned Service Intelligence Group looked in detail at any issues within care home settings, whereas the data return they received did not provide details of the perpetrator. The Independent Chair – BSAB noted that many incidents that arose in care homes were in the area of neglect or acts of omission and could relate to a number of different things such as falls, health and safety, or different ways of working with individuals.

The Chairman highlighted that the section on who used service in Bromley on page 9 of the annual report (page 85 of the agenda pack) stated that ‘237 adults aged 65+ admitted into nursing or residential care’ and asked for further context in relation to this figure. The BSAB Manager confirmed that this was the number of new admissions into these settings during the pandemic year. The Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning advised that at any given time there were approximately 800 people in residential care homes, and 400 people in nursing care homes. Any private placements would be in addition to this figure.

On behalf of the Committee, the Chairman thanked the Independent Chair – BSAB and BSAB Manager for their presentation and expressed gratitude for the important work they undertook.

RESOLVED that the Bromley Safeguarding Adults Board’s 2020/21 Annual Report be noted.